Everyone is Going to be Using this Stuff

Unveiled: the newest big project from Google - Google Wave. The actual demo starts at about 8:00

Though 5414 class is over, I can't seem to get myself out of a Flat World way of thinking (which is probably a good thing). I think I understand what Friedman was saying on a new level, maybe the level that he hoped his less-informed readers would reach. After hearing about Google Wave, I realized something. This system is faster than anything we've seen before. It's faster than meeting, than phone conferencing, it's faster than email, instant messanging, and Google Docs - because it includes all of those processes at once. AND it has PLAYBACK! (seen at 13:00-14:00)

Now, I don't think that I had an epiphany, per se, while watching the Wave demo. But I think I felt my new paradigm clicking into place. Everyone is going to be using this stuff! With Wave, Google is giving people a new type of integrated platform for people to use for collaboration. Google strives for products that offer seamless integration for collaborative use. Think about it: I can work with someone from Korea using Google applications, including Wave. I can also see the building in which they work using Google Maps. And they don't even have to have mastered English, since Google will also translate my words for them.

Okay, maybe not yet. But I can see it coming, and it will be here very soon.

I got really excited when I thought about how I could use this in teaching. GW could easily replace Moodle, but it could also be used in ways that I can't think of right now (I'm way too excited). For instance, here's an idea of how Wave could work in teaching:

1. Assign kids any kind of group work. Literature circles, projects, etc.
2. Kids work together from anywhere with an internet connection, since Wave (like other Google Apps) doesn't need to be downloaded onto a computer - it's accessed through one's web browser. Not only can they create Word, PPt, and Excel-like documents, they can also create photo albums, videos, Podcasts...and they can do so easily.
3. Students can chat with me, their teacher, while they're working online to get feedback.
4. I, the teacher, can see which students contributed which content, and assign points as needed (if points are involved).

That doesn't sound nearly as cool if read outside the context of the demo. Watch the demo.

Friedman was right when he said that we are only now going to see the real capabilities of the Internet. Maybe I'm too underqualified to make this claim, but I think that Wave is part of a new generation of collaborative software. As ideas, software, and hardware move forward, the tools that we have available for us to use will be increasingly faster, more integrated, more seamless, and more interesting. More so than Wave, even. Imagine this. Google (just making a prediction, here) comes out with a product similar to Kindle. They release it along with an application called Google Quotes. While you're reading from your Google-Kindle, you keep Google Quotes open on your laptop. While you read, you can highlight sections of the book, article, or paper that you're reading, and using a "throw" button, send it to your laptop by means of a Bluetooth infrared device. The selection shows up on Google Quotes along with a complete citation. Imagine how much faster research would go with a tool like that!

Everything will probably go faster. I mentioned something similar in a previous post of mine. Because we won't have to spend so much time working and waiting with our "thought-supporting" tools, we'll be able to spend more time thinking. We'll be able to think and learn more efficiently. Maybe - maybe - this means that we'll learn more in less time, counteracting educational inflation to a certain extent.

I should close with some values-related thoughts. Should we be teaching our students this stuff? I think that the argument for teaching students the basics of computer design and web editing is a sound one. Using computers and the Web without understanding the basics of their designs is a bit like driving a car and not knowing how gasoline, oil, and transmission fluid help keep it running. Do we need to teach Wave, or teach using Wave? If collaborative apps are becoming increasingly intuitive and seamless, will they some day be so intuitive and seamless that we won't need to teach them?

My stance today is - we need to use technology in education. And I think we need to use technology to make drastic changes in education, much like technology is creating drastic changes in the global marketplace and in our personal (and interpersonal) lives. If the last great revolution was industrial, this one is digital. Our current educational model is industrial; we now need a digital one.

The thing is, there are lingering industrial pressures. We want to be efficient in our education systems; we want the most capable students for the least cost (that's always what it always seems to comes down to - cost-effectiveness). How do we do this today? Is 1 teacher:30 students in a classroom the most cost-effective?

And, since I really don't believe what I said about everything reducing to cost-effectiveness: simply put, is our current model the most effective? A simply put answer is "I don't know!" Because I have nothing with which to compare our current model. We need to open up our schools to the type of innovation that is now happening in the business world. Only then will we develop a new type of education that fits this new, flat world.